Dead Island AU Interview

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The studio behind Call of Juarez tackles the zombie menace.

By Cam Shea

We all know the zombie apocalypse is coming. It's no longer a question of if, but when. And whether it's in ten years or a hundred, it makes sense to be prepared; to play through the role of human survivor in a zombie playground. Thankfully, videogames provide fertile training grounds, and as a result I'm mildly confident that should I be trapped in a shopping mall or some kind of spooky mansion, I'll be able to make it through. But what about a tropical paradise? What happens when you glance up from your hammock by the beach to see a legion of the undead lumbering their way towards you, the wind's gentle susurrus of only moments ago replaced by the cry of 'braaaains'? Dead Island is here to guide you through it.

In development at Techland, the team behind the underrated gunslinging title Call of Juarez, Dead Island's open-world gameplay seems to be shaping up well, and is backed ably by some killer tech. To find out a little more, we got in touch with Techland's Pawel Kopinski who kindly answered our questions.

IGN AU: Call of Juarez received mixed reviews – some people loved it, others, not so much. Why do you think that was?

Pawel Kopinski: Call of Juarez was a mature title for a mature audience with storyline playing a very important role. It was also a "first" in many regards. The first title with full DX10 support, for one. The idea of two playable characters pitted against each other, with completely different gameplay for each of them was also novel. It's worthwhile to note that many complaints about the first reviewed version of the game were addressed in an extensive patch and free enhancement pack for the PC version and later incorporated into the X360 port. Vast improvements were made in both the gameplay and the technical side.

The pimp slap is the zombie's greatest offensive weapon. That and eating your brain through your skull.

IGN AU: What did you learn from Call of Juarez (or previous games that you've developed) that you're bringing to Dead Island?

Pawel Kopinski: Each completed project gives us more experience in all aspects of game development. In fact, daily improvements and major upgrades to our proprietary Chrome Engine (currently in its fourth version) force the entire team to constantly acquire new skills. CoJ was our first multi-platform title and its success is a huge boost to our confidence. We have a great idea for a game, we have cutting edge technology at our disposal and we have the skills to pull it off. We needed all that to tackle Dead Island, an ambitious and complex project.

IGN AU: What's the core setting and storyline for Dead Island? Where did the concept come from?

Pawel Kopinski: First of all, like many gamers out there we're zombie fanatics. We crave movies and comics featuring the living dead of all shapes and sizes. We have always wanted to make a zombie game not just for the fun of it but because the existing titles were missing something. They were either not taking their story seriously or the so-called zombies weren't really zombies at all.

Dead Island allows players to live the story of an unlikely hero who finds himself stranded on a tropical island following a plane crash. Not only is his wife missing but the entire holiday paradise is devastated by a deadly virus that turns people into vicious walking corpses.

IGN AU: How different are your zombies from George A. Romero's archetypal zombies? Or from Resident Evil 4's not-quite-zombies? What do we need to know to take them down?

Pawel Kopinski: There will be more than one type of zombie in Dead Island but the most typical and numerous one is going to be closer to the classic "Romero" variety. It has limited intelligence and is unable to use any tools or weapons. One similarity with RE4's zombies I can think of is the fact that our undead are also victims of a virus infection that transforms them into shambling, bloodthirsty nightmarish creatures.

Hammock? Check. Pina Colada? Check. Horde of hungry zombies? Check.

IGN AU: What makes Dead Island different from a standard survival horror title or first person shooter? Can you tell us about some of the RPG elements?

Pawel Kopinski: Dead Island adds much more depth to both genres. On one hand it's a survival horror with all the excitement of shooters and on the other it's an FPP game with immersive, terrifying and believable storyline and exciting melee combat. RPG elements are there to add even more fun and variety. Character development, optional quests and new fighting abilities to learn mean that there's always something new to discover.

IGN AU: Dead Island takes a non-linear approach to game structure – can you give us some examples of how the player's actions will have long term consequences?

Pawel Kopinski: Interaction with other survivors on the island can serve as a good example. Let's say we get a chance to deliver much-needed supplies to a camp. Later on its occupants may offer us something in return: information or items. Choosing not to help the camp, or worse to unleash zombies on the innocent people by sabotaging the defences, we deprive ourselves of that extra assistance. In addition our reputation can make dealing with other groups very difficult.

We can accidentally or purposefully get a very important character killed. That can have all sorts of consequences, from depriving us of a convenient access route to a minor goal all the way to changing the game's ending.

Help me Oprah!

IGN AU: Can you illustrate some of the challenges that come with designing an open-world?

Pawel Kopinski: It's a question of how much freedom players should get at any given stage. It is important to ensure that the story is told by the journey itself, not only in specific locations scattered all over the island. One of the dangers posed by open-world design is the difficulty of maintaining the pace. There is a lot of freedom in certain areas where players can wander around picking fights and completing quests but some locations are more confining and offer only minor tactical choices. We never allow the player to roam aimlessly, looking for something to do. Balancing it all is one of the most important challenges we face.

IGN AU: How dynamic will the AI in the game be?

Pawel Kopinski: The funny thing about zombie AI is that it's very difficult to make it convincingly dumb º. Walking dead must be frightening not suicidal. They have to react to players' actions and to changes in the environment. Another difficulty comes from the fact that zombies often appear in groups or even crowds and still need to move about. Our enemies have instincts that can be used to manipulate them to some extent. We won't spoil the experience by revealing too much because experimenting with the AI is going to be fun.

Of course human opponents that also appear in Dead Island will display all the expected abilities and sneakiness of our kind: cooperation, attacking from cover or outflanking.